


The Lone Survivor

by The Writers apprentice (Thewritersapprentice)



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Mythology - Freeform, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Sirens
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-10-03
Updated: 2016-04-13
Packaged: 2018-04-24 14:35:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,450
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4923367
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thewritersapprentice/pseuds/The%20Writers%20apprentice
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The thought was ridiculous, like the plot of a bad fantasy novel. I could imagine the blurb already: “Melody, an eighteen year old siren shifter ends up in an alternate universe where giants called Titans threaten the survival of humanity. Faced with many challenges, like the man-eating monsters, cold commanders and rude corporals, she has to make her way around in a new world. Can she find her way back home?”</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. prologue

Once upon a time… 

No, that’s not the way to start this story. That phrase is used for fairy tales, stories about dapper princes and young girls who turn into princesses. This story isn’t like that; there are no brave heroes or cunning servant girls, just me, a confused eighteen year old in a place she doesn’t belong.   
I should give some background information before we dive into this unknown world though. 

A long time ago, there were almighty beings that had been roaming the earth freely for thousands and thousands of years before the first humans arose. Okay, so they weren’t exactly almighty, but they liked to think they were. These so called ‘gods and daimons’ could influence forces of nature, and they liked to help the new specie out when the humans first appeared. 

For a couple of centuries, the gods and humans lived alongside each other in a strange kind of harmony. The humans helped the daimons, gods that were bound by either their mortality or their ties with a specific place (and sometimes both) like the dryads in their forests or the sirens in their ponds, and in return they taught the humans how to evolve. 

However, just like all good things, this era of peace wasn’t meant to last. The story goes that one of the human males got into a fight with a Siren after he had heard her sing and wanted to make her his wife. The siren, who was young and the spirit of a wild river, didn’t want to be bound to anybody and rejected him.   
Angered by the siren’s rude rejection, the man took matters into his own hands and spilled her blood. 

None of the other daimons took this matter lightly, and within days the once peaceful realm had collapsed in a brutal civil war. Although the gods and daimons could fight with the powers of nature, they had taught the humans so many things, that they weren’t able to fight them of. 

Fearing for their existence, the gods that could locked themselves away in several save havens that exist too this day. No human has ever gotten in, and none ever will. But the daimons that were bound to their origin were left to suffer alone. Their numbers dwindled rapidly and they went into hiding, forming clans within their element to take care of each other.

Again, centuries passed and humans forgot all about the mystical creatures that had taught them how to live. Every now and then they still stumbled upon some of them, and thus legends about monsters and the heroes who would slay them were born. 

Eventually some clans mastered the principles of transformation, and to protect themselves from fearful humans, they changed their appearances to fit into the human society. The entire group of Siren clans did this, and that’s why I appear as a normal teenage girl.

In the twenty first century (well, according to the western human calendar anyway) the gods were all forgotten, dismissed as silly stories of naïve people from a different time. However, there was a small group that fiercely held onto the believe that the gods still existed, and their only goal was to hunt all the clans down. They called themselves the ‘Hunters of faith’ and they were feared within the clans because of their lethal determination. 

Now that you know the most important things, we can go on with the story.


	2. Where am I?

The sight I woke up to was not exactly pleasant. I was lying on a gigantic tree branch in some sort of forest of enormous trees; light filtering through dark green leaves and lighting little spots on the dark brown tree bark all around me. I got up slowly and blinked in surprise as I registered the abyss underneath the branch. I was up at least twelve metres high.

That wasn’t the unpleasant part though; the scenery could have been rather beautiful -I’ve got a thing for nature- if it weren’t for the enormous humanoid figures about a hundred metres away from me. About half a dozen of deformed, humanoid creatures, the smallest one about six metres tall, were walking around without any apparent purpose. The giants moved in my general direction slowly, looking around with their dead eyes as if they were looking for something.

A sudden shimmer of light caught my eye, and when I concentrated on spotting the source, I could see little figures flying by the giants, swinging from metallic lines that they connected and disconnected to the trees. The way they moved around reminded me of Spiderman a little bit. They swung around in large arcs, making quick twists and turns to change directions in a way that made it seem like they were actually flying.

Horror filled me when they approached the giants, and one of them slowly reached out, as if to grab the figures. It didn’t seem like they just wanted to play. Some of the people managed to escape its grasp and swung around it, but not every one of them managed to do so. I moved forward unconsciously when I saw that one of the figures was caught, and the giant brought the person up to it’s big gaping mouth. 

Everything inside of me screamed to cry out, but for some reason I could only watch with dread as the person got closer and closer to their inevitable demise. 

It turned out that I had been a little bit rash with that conclusion. A figure that had been able to swing behind the giant’s head swung their weapons at its neck, and the huge giant fell forward lifelessly.   
I let out a sigh of relief when I saw that the person who’d been caught in it’s fist was able to fire their gear and swing away from the giant’s steaming corpse, but the relief was short lived. 

One of the giants had somehow managed to sneak up on me from behind the trunk of the tree my branch was attached too. A ghastly grin stuck on it’s weirdly proportioned face, the giant moved slowly, and if I had been wearing the same gear as the figures that were still fighting giants up ahead, I probably would’ve been able to get away. 

However, I didn’t have any of the awesome gear they had, I was just in my regular old skinny jeans, a pair of black and white sneakers and a nice off shoulder top that significantly restrained me from moving my arms, because the one day I apparently shouldn’t have, I had decided to listen to my mother and tried to live up to the expectations set for the females of my family a bit.   
I’ll never be doing that again. 

As it was, all I could do was back away. My heartbeat accelerated, and as I stepped back, I covered my mouth to try and lessen the hyperventilation I felt coming up. I didn’t know where I was or why I was there, but it seemed like I’d meet my end before I could get any answers about what was going on. The monster reached out slowly, I wasn’t high enough to be out of it’s reach and in response I took another step back.

Because of the sheer size of everything around me, I had kind of forgotten that I was in fact standing on a tree branch. Which meant that my last step backwards was not met with the sturdy wood of a tree that was over 80 metres tall, but simply with thin air instead. I closed my eyes as the air whistled around me, not wanting the last thing I’d see before my death to be the hideous monster, which was currently staring at me as I fell. 

I don’t know what dead would be worse, falling to your death from twelve metres high, or being eaten alive by a humanoid giant. On second thought the latter probably would be worse. At least you’re dead in one hit when you fall, right?

Whatever feeling that had been stopping me from making a sound earlier disappeared, and I let out a long, terrified, high-pitched scream. Everybody always talks about their lives flashing behind their eyes when they are about to die, but I didn’t see precious childhood memories or anything like that.

All I could think of was my sister Serena; I could imagine what she’d tell me. “Don’t just scream like that Melody! You know what your voice can do!”

There was a sudden impact when somebody crashed into me, wrapping an arm around my waist, and we were thrown to the side. My eyes flew open as I tried to suck air back into my lungs after it had been forced out at the impact. I stared up at the person who saved me in shock. He had short, dark hair, steel grey eyes, and he was wearing some sort of military uniform. “Daijobu-ka?”* He asked. I blinked, trying to understand what he was saying, and I realised he was speaking in another language. 

It sounded like somewhat like Japanese, and I tried to place what he might have said in the context of our situation. He shot a metallic line towards a tree up ahead, launching us into a new arc. “Omai, Daijobu desu-ka?”** He repeated, looking down at me and I realised I hadn’t answered yet. He probably was asking me if I was all right, so I nodded in response, not trusting I’d be able to answer him properly in his language yet. Apparently satisfied with my non-verbal answer, he focused on getting us back to his comrades. 

He was obviously part of the group I’d seen fighting the giants earlier. He was strong and he shot the lines with such precision that he must have had years of experience with the Spiderman gear. I just held onto him, hoping I’d be safe from the giants with him.

When we got closer to the other people, I realised that the fighting had stopped. In those few minutes I had stopped watching – because honestly, I had my own problems to focus on- the humans had gotten the upper hand in the fight, and several smoking corpses lay scattered on the ground. I couldn’t help but wonder if the sudden turning of tables had something to do with me, but I shoved that thought away to the back of my mind. I had other things focus on right now. 

We got closer to the group of soldiers, who all were wearing similar uniforms, light clothing with the gear they used to swing from the trees strapped over their shirt and pants, with a brown jacket sporting an emblem with wings over the leather straps, and dark green cloaks. Maybe this really was some kind of army? I didn’t recognize the blue and white wings logo, and there was no flag on the uniforms, but they were speaking a language I’d never heard before too. Maybe I had somehow ended up in a little known Asian country?

“Mina, kotaisuru!”*** The man who’d rescued me shouted - I secretly dubbed him Rescuer in my head- and everybody responded with an affirmative “Hai”. Apparently he held some kind of authority over the rest of them. There was a collective sound of people whistling, and suddenly a group of horses appeared from between the trees. I stared in bewilderment as people all around me got into the saddle and waited for Rescuer to do the same. 

What kind of military still used horses to get around? And then those monsters, how come I’d never heard of them before? You’d think that 12 metre tall humanoids would get some media coverage, even if they only lived in some obscure country with huge trees.

Rescuer said something to the group of people mounting their horses before returning his attention to me. I kind of wanted to know his name, calling him Rescuer sounded lame, even in my head, but focusing on understanding the language was hard enough for now. I’d find out what his name was sooner or later.  
I secretly wished I were more like my sister. She was exactly what our family expected from us, and she was able to pick up a whole language from just a few words. I always needed at least three full conversations to do the same. 

I was pulled out of my thoughts when somebody quite literally picked me up. Rescuer had grabbed my waist again and pulled me into the saddle unceremoniously, placing me in on the horse, both legs on one side, right behind him. He had gotten on a beautiful dark horse when I was lost in thought, and apparently he had been waiting for me to climb on too. I guess he wasn’t a patient man.

Rescuer guided my arms around his waist, and when he had made sure I’d stay on his horse, he dug his heels into the animal’s side. The horse immediately shot forward, and I tightened my hold on his torso, afraid of sliding of. It took a while before I was able to keep my balance on my own; I’d never ridden a horse before.

It flashed through my mind that there was something very of about this place. Besides the man-eating giants and the fact that the military used horses, I mean. There were a lot of young faces in the group, some were teenagers even younger than me, but they were in the same uniforms, donning the Spiderman-gear too. They looked completely at ease carrying around the deathly weapons that were sheeted in the boxes at their hips, and it dawned on me that they probably had combat experience. 

There was chatter all around me, and I listened intently, slowly picking up the language to the point where I could understand it, and I’d even be able to give short replies if I was asked something. 

Well, in theory anyway, nobody asked me anything, because no one seemed to want to get close enough to Rescuer to do so. He was at the front of the little procession, and there was at least a four-metre gap between us and the other soldiers when we left the forest. I was lucky that the soldiers were hyped up about their victory and talking so loudly because of it, otherwise I still wouldn’t have learned anything.

Maybe it was because they respected him, maybe they were just really afraid of him. I didn’t really know. Either way, we were leading the group out of the tall forest completely on our own. 

I relaxed against Rescuer’s back slightly, wondering how I could explain my situation to the group of soldiers when they would start to ask questions, because I was pretty sure they’d do so soon. They would probably believe me if I just showed them, but I felt reluctant when I thought about that. If I showed them, they were sure to distrust me immediately, which wasn’t the best thing that could happen to me right now, and worst case scenario was that they’d end my life as soon as they saw what I actually was. Either way, I needed to figure out where I was, how the hell I’d gotten here in the first place, and most importantly, how to get back home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm a little nervous about posting this. This is my biggest work yet, and I'm a little insecure about whether other people will like it. So please, leave a message or give kudos, feedback is always appreciated. 
> 
> * (Are you) all right?  
> ** Are you all right?  
> *** Everyone, retreat!  
> (these translations were done with google translate, so please don't take my word for it)


	3. Chapter 3

After about two hours on horseback – which resulted in a very sore bottom for me- we approached a very large wall. Like, gigantic. Why was every single thing in this place so damn big? The wall must have been about fifty metres high and it seemed to be slightly curved, as if it were surrounding something.

I looked over Rescuer’s shoulder at it in pure awe. I still hadn’t found out what his name was, because even after joining another huge group of soldiers and forming some sort of wide formation, absolutely nobody approached us during the ride so far. 

I was confident that I’d be able to communicate properly now though, after I’d caught a couple of sentences, the language started to fill my thoughts. It held similarities to both Asian languages, and roman based once like Italian. From time to time I was really grateful for my genetics, at least that was something good I’d gotten from my family. 

I realize that I sound bitter when I talk about my family, and I’d like to point out that I in fact do love all of them dearly. However, being the younger sister of Serena Lorelei, the perfect Siren child, I had a lot to live up to, and I really wasn’t able to do as well as she did. Even though they didn’t mean too, my mother and grandmother couldn’t hide the fact that they were disappointed with my different behaviour well. I’m tomboyish and impulsive, I don’t think before I speak, and when you’ve got a voice like ours, that’s a very dangerous personality trait. 

“Are you holding on?” somebody suddenly asked, and I snapped up, loosing my balance in the process. With out as much as glancing back in my direction, Rescuer grabbed my arm and pulled me back into the saddle.   
“Don’t startle her Hange, the idiot has trouble staying on as it is.” Rescuer grumbled out. Normally I’d bite out a protest at being called names, but I really couldn’t bring up the energy to do so right now. The woman, who was now riding next to us, didn’t react annoyed with his behaviour either. In stead she just raised an eyebrow at Rescuer, which he promptly ignored.

“Levi, leave the girl alone,” she said. Ah, so that was his name, Levi. It was fitting, somehow. I tried to shoot Hange a grateful smile, but I doubt it looked like anything more than a grimace. Hange had brown hair fashioned into a wild ponytail, and brown eyes hidden behind a pair of simple glasses. She looked happy, if not a little bit hyper.

“Hey, what’s your name? How did you end up outside the wall, you aren’t part of the survey corps are you? I have never seen you around anyway. What are you wearing? You’ve got nice hair! And your nails, why are they red?” Definitely hyper. I had the feeling I was going to forget half of her questions before I’d even answered the first one. 

“I’m Melody, youngest child of the Lorelei-clan,” I started, answering her first question with a formal clan introduction. I mean, I had already decided to tell the soldiers the truth about whom, or rather what, I was, so I might as well go with the proper pleasantries that come with introducing myself as such as well. 

It probably wouldn’t be too much of a stretch for them to believe my story, and I could prove it anyway. There was still a little voice in my head, which sounded suspiciously like Serena’s, which told me not to talk about the family secret because it would end in death and despair, but I decided to ignore it. After all, this was a place were giant monsters threatened mankind, revealing the existence of mythological creatures probably wouldn’t be considered that strange. 

“Eh? You sound odd,” Hange interrupted before I could continue. I tried to shrug - which probably didn’t look as nonchalant as I’d like it too, half slumped against somebody’s back on top of a horse- and muttered something about feeling tired and wanting my family. Speaking a language you’d never heard before was bound to sound a little bit off in the beginning. Maybe she would just play it off as some kind of accent. 

“Oh well, we’ll be back inside the walls in about half an hour, you’ll be able to find your family then Melody.” Hange said, trying to comfort me. I had to physically restrain myself from snorting. Finding my family? Here? I don’t think so. They were probably sitting at the kitchen table in our home in a country without giant, man-eating monsters, wondering where the hell I was. Knowing my father, the police had been called the moment they found out I was not where I was supposed to be. 

“I don’t know where I am, but I don’t live here,” I confessed softly. I could feel Levi tense under my arms, but he relaxed so fast that it felt like I’d imagined it. Hange’s seemingly unwavering smile faltered too.   
“You don’t … live… here?” She repeated, utter bewilderment evident in her voice as she shot Levi a questioning look. “Are you from the opposite district or something?”  
“District?” I repeated, feeling even more confused, “No, I’ve never seen this place in my life,” I told her honestly. 

Hange looked at me as if she saw water burning. Was it that much of a surprise that I didn’t live within that wall? You’d think that the citizens of that city were the only form of civilisation known to them. It was a bizarre notion. 

“Stop, we’ll talk about this later,” Levi interrupted, sounding firm. There was no doubt in my mind anymore, he definitely held some form of authority. He had barked out commands before, and when he spoke, he sounded like he was used to being obeyed. I looked around, and I saw why he wanted us to stop talking; we had gathered a little audience during our conversation.

Three teens of the group that had found me had slowly gotten closer to us while I was talking to Hange. One of them, a boy with long, blond hair that framed his face was frowning at me. His blue eyes seemed to scan me, and I could almost see the cogs in his head turning as he tried to figure me out. He turned to his companions, a boy with short dark brown hair and a gaze that was intimidating even from far a way, and an Asian looking girl – the only person I’d seen around here who actually looked Asian- who was wearing a dark red scarf in addition to her uniform. 

“The three of them are to curious for their own good,” Levi muttered darkly, as if the three of them caused trouble for him regularly.   
“Curiosity might be what’s needed to save humanity,” Hange objected.  
“I don’t care, we don’t need the townspeople gossiping about impossible things before we find out what’s going on ourselves. The brats can be curious little shits when we’re out of the civilian eyes again.” Levi said, effectively shutting down Hange’s argument.  
It sounded like the two of them had held this conversation more than a few times before, and I decided not to mingle in it. My grandparents got like this discussing what course of action our family should take after clan-meetings too, and disturbing them never was a good idea. 

What Hange said stuck in my mind though. ‘What was needed to save humanity’? That sounded quite dramatic, there are over seven billion people on this earth, I’d say humanity is doing fine, even if part of it is being threatened by those creepy monsters.  
I wondered what the relationship between Levi and Hange actually was. They seemed rather close, as Hange had no problems approaching Levi, even though the rest of the soldiers rather kept their distance. Whether that was because they feared him or respected him was hard to determine. I guess it was a little bit of both. 

Somehow I ended falling asleep for a little bit. Even though I only woke up a couple hours ago, I felt absolutely exhausted. The uncertainty of the whole situation was really taking a toll on my mind, and the steady rhythm of the galloping horse, combined with the warmth coming from Levi made me doze for a little while.   
Okay, maybe a not so little while. To be honest, I was out like a light. I didn’t wake up until we were already on the other side of the wall, because the soft thudding of hooves on the loose ground suddenly turned into loud clip clopping on stones. There were voices all around me, and I looked around, still feeling rather drowsy. 

There was a gigantic group of people crowding the streets, staring at the group of soldiers I was with as if they had never seen them before in their lives. Every one of them was wearing clothing like I’d seen in history books, although some outfits had modern twists, like sleeveless hoodies over ankle length dresses. I closed my eyes and pretended I was asleep again; it was easier to listen to conversations that way. 

“The survey corps only lost twenty soldiers!” a woman exclaimed in surprise. I tensed. Only twenty? That was a big group of people. That would be like killing of my entire high school class, but she acted as if the soldiers only had a few bruises. 

“Didn’t they meet any titans?” Somebody else wondered out loud. I realized that they meant the man-eating giants the soldiers were fighting against in the forest. So they were called titans? That was a rather fitting name, if you thought about it, after all Cronus, who ate his own children alive in the old Greek myths, was a titan too.  
“I think they came back early, look at Corporal Levi.” Somebody pointed out.   
“Who is that girl? She wasn’t with them this morning.” 

It sounded like the apparent success of the group of soldiers I now knew was called the Survey Corps was something really surprising, and I couldn’t help but wonder what the situation was like. From what I had seen, the soldiers were quite skilled, but the people were talking about them as if they were absolutely worthless. 

“Soldiers, we’re going to HQ,” somebody up ahead suddenly called out, and I opened my eyes, acting as if the sudden voice had startled me awake. It was the muscular blonde, who Levi had talked to very shortly before I understood the language properly.

Levi silently followed the man’s command, giving the horse gentle aids to get out of the city. I had expected him to drop me off in town; I wouldn’t be of any use for a military corps, not in the regular sense anyway.   
“You are to old for an orphanage, aren’t you?” Levi asked, as if he’d been reading my thoughts. I wasn’t really surprised he knew what was going through my mind; I already suspected that he was a very perceptive man.  
“I turned eighteen last month,” I replied quietly.   
“You’ll come with us for now then, we’ll see what we are going to do with you later,” he decided, before driving his heels into the horses flank. 

The crowd parted before us, and I heard some little children cheer and shout out at Levi. Even though the Survey Corps wasn’t popular, the people apparently had a great amount of respect for Levi. I even caught somebody calling him “ Humanity’s strongest soldier”. Levi had scoffed at that, but for some reason, I thought that it was rather fitting.

Although I still didn’t understand much of what was going on, I felt rather safe leaning against the back of a man who was widely respected. I fully believed that the corps could help me to return home. 

Oh, how naïve I was to think that.


	4. Chapter 3

“So why did you take her with you, Levi? You could have just dropped her of with the Military Police,” The muscular blond man who’d introduced himself as commander Erwin Smith asked. He was the exact opposite of Levi. Where Levi was short, stoic and had dark hair, Erwin was tall, had neatly combed blonde hair, and a face that reflected a kind but resolute personality. 

Right after we’d gotten to the HQ of the Survey Corps – and I regained my balance, which was thrown of by the long horse ride- Levi had taken me to Erwin’s office so we could discuss my fate with him. I was currently sitting on a soft couch against the sidewall of said office, as Levi and Erwin were talking to each other, completely ignoring me.

“We found her in the forest of giant trees,” Levi answered from where he was leaning against the opposite wall, glaring in my direction when I snorted. Forest of giant trees? Whoever came up with that name seriously lacked creativity.  
“She fell of a branch in a sad attempt to avoid a titan,” Levi continued, sliding in the little jab at the cause of our first meeting effortlessly. I had already noticed Levi was a little bit aloof, but I hadn’t expected him to be outright rude. 

“You found her that far outside of the walls?” Erwin asked ignoring Levi’s petty comment, but again addressing Levi instead of me.   
“Yes, She said she’s not from here, and she acted like she has never seen the wall Rose before in her life-“  
“That’s because I haven’t,” I muttered, trying to resist the urge to roll my eyes. I somehow managed, but Levi didn’t. 

“Could you stop interrupting us, Lorelei?” He asked, addressing me by my last name. His face looked neutral, but the tone of his voice betrayed that he was in fact quite annoyed with me.   
“I don’t know, could you stop talking about me like I’m not in the same damned room as you are?” I countered. Erwin sent me a smile at that, resting his elbows on his desk and folding his hands under his chin.   
“You are absolutely right, Melody, isn’t it?”   
“Yes, sir.” I replied politely. Somehow the habit of addressing him as sir had snuck in as easily as the language had. It was not that strange, really, I was found by a military corps, so the people I came in contact with were used to demanding respect. And if I was honest, I’d always been a bit of a people’s pleaser.

“You claim that you’ve never been here before right? Do you know what that suggests?” Erwin questioned, raising one of his very full eyebrows. Normally I would be curious, but right now I simply couldn’t bring up the energy to be inquisitive. 

“No sir, I do not,” I sighed instead. I got up and walked to the open window behind the desk Erwin occupied, hoping to clear my head a bit by breathing in clean air instead of the musty scent of dust and old books that hang in the office. My thoughts drifted to my family, I could remember a little bit more of my day before waking up here. We had been driving to my grandparents, but I still didn’t have a clue as to how I got here. 

It was getting pretty late now, the sun was slowly dipping past the horizon in the distance, and I wasn’t sure how much time had passed since I’d disappeared. At least a few hours, but maybe even a couple of days? I didn’t know how long I’d been unconscious, or how far away from home I was in the first place. 

“Is there another society of humans safe from the titans?” Erwin asked curiously.   
I turned my head to look at him before I answered.   
“Sir, I can honestly say that even though I have faced monsters before, today was the first time in my life that I have ever seen titans. There aren’t any titans where I’m from.” I paused before adding, “At least not in that form,” in a mutter, and leaning outside. 

I had noticed before that the air was a lot cleaner around here, as if there had never been engines propelling exhaust fumes into the air. It was a nice change from the filthy city air. I lived in Rees at the moment, a little town on the bank of the river Rhein –my family had wanted to stay close to our roots- but even there you could practically taste the smog in the air.   
The clean air was a nice change, and I had decided to enjoy it while I could. Maybe I should convince Serena to come camping in the forest with me sometime after I’d gotten back.

“A place without titans…” Levi muttered from where he was leaning against the wall. “Tch” Let me tell you, not once in my life had I heard a single sound so full of sarcasm and disbelief.  
“It’s the truth!” I bit out, turning around to face him. I was tired, confused and completely done with his prickly attitude. “There are no walls like those you live behind where I come from, but we’ve never been attacked!” Levi didn’t reply, he just stared at me. 

“Not by titans anyway,” I backpedalled, recalling the history lessons I’d gotten - both at home and at school- about humanity’s many wars. Humans had fought against my kind for a long time, it was the main reason for the existence of daimon clans in the first place, but when the clans went into hiding they had easily moved onto another target, themselves. 

Erwin was looking at me intently, and I tried not to squirm under his gaze. I was still wearing my jeans and off shoulder top, and even though there had been a woman in a hoody in town before, those kinds of clothes weren’t something I’d seen anybody else wear around here. It should add to my credibility, right?

“You’re actually telling the truth, aren’t you?” he asked after a measured silence, walking up to me and grabbing my hand. I tried to pull back, gripping at the windowsill with my other hand, as I didn’t feel fully comfortable with Erwin’s sudden proximity. He simply tightened his grip and pulled my fingers up to his face. 

I waited anxiously for him to make a remark about the odd shape of my fingers, because my fingertips were less rounded than the average human’s, or maybe about the fact that you could see faint red lines in between them where the webs for swimming would form after transforming. They weren’t rather obvious, but they looked as if somebody had traced the outline of my fingers with a red felt tip.

I had the lines on my arms and my back too at the places where my fins sprouted from my skin when transformed, but most of the time I told people they were scars when they questioned me about them. If you look upset enough, people will drop whatever it is that they’re asking about.

“Why are your nails red?” Erwin asked deadpan instead, looking at me with a curious expression. I stared back at him for a bit in confusion, before bursting out in giggles. There are things that are obviously off about my fingers, and that is what he is curious about?  
“I’m serious, is that normal where you are from?” Erwin asked, when I didn’t answer him, which caused a new bout of giggles. He wasn’t fazed about the lines or my pointy fingers, but the colour of my nails was worrying him?

“It’s nail polish, Sir,” I explained between laughs. I put the tip of my nail a little above the edge of the cuticle off my thumb and scratched some of the polish away, revealing my bare finger nail “It’s paint made for your nails, and it’s mostly worn by females back home,” Levi had gotten bored with our conversation and interrupted. 

“So you’re really saying that you’re from another place?” he stated, disbelieve obvious in his voice. “Well, I guess so,” I replied quietly, my giddiness disappearing completely with that single statement.   
“You’d better find a way to prove it, Lorelei, or I might just change my mind about not giving you to the Military Police” Levi told me, before turning to walk out of the office.   
“I have one!” I shouted at him, not able to keep my emotions controlled right now. The exhaustion was doing funny things to my composure. 

Levi paused, but didn’t turn around. He just seemed to be waiting for me to continue.  
“I’m a daimon, a Siren-shifter to be exact! If you want me to prove that I’m telling the truth, let’s go to a river or something tomorrow, and I will!” I cursed myself quietly after shouting those words; it had been a year since I’d last shifted, and keeping myself from doing it had a very good reason. There were other ways to show them. Safer reasons.

“Alright,” was all Levi said before continuing his walk to the door. “I’d like to see your evidence.”  
Levi left the office, closing the door behind him with a sharp click of the lock.

I was left behind in the office with commander Erwin, wondering what was up with Levi’s behaviour. Seriously, was that guy always like that? Maybe I had misjudged him before; he was acting like an absolute ass. 

“You’re a shifter?” Erwin asked, suddenly completely serious. I couldn’t help but shiver at the sudden change in his tone. I had never told anybody my secret, not since I was little, and the silent threat in his voice suddenly made me remember why I had never done so.   
“Y-yes, Sir” I stuttered out, wondering if maybe telling them had been a mistake. It sounded like they knew about shifters, at least a little.

Could they be like the Hunters of Faith? If that was the case, I was majorly screwed.

Erwin’s expression darkened.  
“We’re done for now, I’ll get Hange to show you to the showers and the girls’ dorm, I’m sure you can borrow some clean clothes from somebody.” He said, all friendliness gone, replaced with a strong, cool professionalism. 

“We’ll let you try to prove your claim in two days, make sure you are ready. If you turn out to be lying, or you hurt one of my men, I’ll hand you over to the Military Police myself. Now leave,” Erwin said, dismissing me.  
I nodded, brining my right hand up to my temple in a quick salute before hurrying out of the office, not admitting that I didn’t have a single clue where I should go from there. 

The first thing Levi had done after caring for his horse in the stables was taking me to Erwin’s office, so I didn’t know where to go or where I could find Hange. Turning back wasn’t really an option right now. I hated to admit it, but the commander’s tone scared me, and I don’t think he’d help me find my way right now. 

I just wandered through the halls instead, hoping that I would find someone willing to help me soon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the third chapter, please leave a comment!


End file.
